Iraq's president reported in coma

BAGHDAD Talal Talabani, the president whose influence in mediating disputes among Iraq's many political factions has far outweighed the limited powers of the office he occupies, suffered a stroke and was in grave health on Tuesday in a Baghdad hospital.

Talabani's illness cast a shadow over the Kurdish lands in the north where he once fought a guerrilla war and where he now lives, and added a new element of uncertainty to the country's divided politics a year after the departure of the U.S. military left Iraq's leaders to steer the country's shaky democracy on their own.

Officials and doctors said Talabani, 79, who has been treated abroad for medical conditions in recent years, was in stable condition, but other officials suggested his condition was more serious. A hospital official as well as a high-level government official both said the president was in a coma.

The deteriorating health of Talabani, a Kurd, comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iraq's central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. A dispute over land and oil that has festered for years has sharpened in recent weeks as government forces sought to take more control of security in the disputed territories near Kirkuk, a northern city claimed both by Kurds and the central government.

Talabani exerts sway over Iraq's affairs beyond the limited powers of his office, which is largely ceremonial. He is one of the few leaders – perhaps the only one – who is seen as a unifying figure with the power, at times, to bring Iraq's many factions to the bargaining table. His absence from politics would have a profound influence in Baghdad, where Talabani has been trying to mediate a continuing political crisis that at its core is a contest for power among the country's three main groups: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

Talabani last week brokered a deal that calls on both sides to eventually withdraw troops from the contested areas, though there is no timetable for how soon the drawdown might take place.

At a news conference at the hospital where the president was being treated, a doctor described his condition as “stable” and said he is expected to improve. On Twitter, Talabani's son, Qubad Talabani, who represents the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington, wrote that his father “is currently stable” and “we hope can begin his recovery soon.”

On Monday Jalal Talabani met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss Iraq's political problems. Afterward, a statement from Talabani's office said, the two men stressed the need for calm and transparent dialogue, as well as “working according to the spirit of the constitution and the national agreements” to solve Iraq's ills.

Al-Maliki has visited Talabani in the hospital, according to officials.

Talabani was apparently rushed to the hospital Monday evening. He is being treated by specialists at a facility known as the Baghdad Medical City, and officials said doctors were trying to determine if he could be flown abroad for care. If not, foreign medical specialists were expected to join his medical team.

Word of Talabani's illness trickled out exactly a year after the last U.S. troops rolled out of Iraq. Their departure on Dec. 18, 2011 ended a nearly nine-year war that left more than 100,000 Iraqis and nearly 4,500 Americans dead.

Talabani, who is overweight, had heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 2008 and has returned for treatment since, including in March. Over the summer, he had knee-replacement surgery in Germany.

Iraq at one point had three vice presidents, though one resigned last year and the other, Sunni politician Tariq al-Hashemi, fled the country after arrest warrants were issued against him. In the event of a vacancy, Shiite Vice President Khudier al-Khuzaie would be expected to assume the president's duties temporarily.

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